The subject today is the three universal characteristics
of existence. This is an important part of the teachings of the Buddha.
Like the Four Noble Truths, karma, the teaching of dependent origination
and the five aggregates, the teaching of the three characteristics
is part of what we might call the doctrinal contents of wisdom. In
other words, when we talk about the knowledge and the understanding
that is implied by wisdom, we have this teaching in mind.

Before we examine the characteristics individually,
let us come to an understanding of what they mean and in what way
they are useful. First of all, what is a characteristic and what is
not? A characteristic is something which is necessarily connected
with something else. Because the characteristic is necessarily connected
with something, it can tell us about the nature of that thing. Let
us take an example. Heat for instance is a characteristic of fire
but not a characteristic of water. Heat is the characteristic of fire
because the heat of the fire is always and invariably connected with
fire. On the other hand, the heat of water depends on external factors
- an electric stove, the heat of the sun and so forth. But the heat
of fire is natural to fire. It is in this sense that the Buddha uses
the term "characteristic" to refer to facts about the nature
of existence, that are always connected with existence and that are
always found in existence. The characteristic heat is always connected
with fire. So we can understand something about the nature of fire
from heat. We can understand that fire is hot. We can understand that
we can use fire to cook our food, to warm ourselves and so forth.
The characteristic of heat tells us something about fire, how to use
fire and what to do with fire. If we were to think of the characteristic
of heat as connected with water, it would not help us to use water
because heat is not always connected with water. We cannot cook our
food with water. We cannot warm ourselves with water. So when the
Buddha said that there are three characteristics of existence, He
meant that these characteristics are always present in existence,
and that they help us to understand what to do with existence.

The three characteristics of existence that we have
in mind are the characteristics of impermanence (Anitya), suffering
(Duhkha) and not-self (Anatma). These three characteristics are always
present in or are connected with existence, and they tell us about
the nature of existence. They help us to know what to do with existence.
What we learn to develop as a result of understanding the three characteristics
is renunciation. Once we understand that existence is universally
characterized by impermanence, suffering and not-self, we eliminate
our attachment to existence. Once we eliminate our attachment to existence,
we gain the threshold of Nirvana. This is the purpose that understanding
the three characteristics serves. It removes attachment by removing
delusions, the misunderstanding that existence is permanent, is pleasant
and has something to do with the self. This is why understanding the
three characteristics is part of the contents of wisdom.

Let us look at the first of the three characteristics
of existence, the characteristic of impermanence. The fact of impermanence
has been recognized not only in Buddhist thought but also elsewhere
in the history of philosophy. It was the ancient Greek philosopher
Heraclitus who remarked that one could not step into the same river
twice. This remark, which implies the ever-changing and transient
nature of things is a very buddhistic remark. In the Buddhist scriptures,
it is said that the three worlds (Dhatus) are impermanent like autumn
clouds; that birth and death are like a dance; and that human life
is like a flash of lightning or a waterfall. All these are compelling
images of impermanence and they help us to understand that all things
are marked or characterized by impermanence.

If we look at our own personality, we will find that
our bodies are impermanent. They are subject to constant change. We
grow thin. We grow old and grey, our teeth fall out, our hair falls
out. If one needs any proof of the impermanence of the physical form,
one need only look at ones own photograph on ones own
driving licence or passport over the years. Similarly, our mental
states are impermanent. At one moment we are happy, and at another
moment we are sad. As infants, we hardly understand anything. As adults,
in the prime of life we understand a great deal more. And again in
old age we lose the power of our mental faculties and become like
infants. Our minds are also characterized by impermanence. This is
true also of the things that we see around us. Everything we see around
us is impermanent. Not one thing will last forever - not the office
blocks, nor the temples, nor the rivers and islands, nor the mountain
chains, nor the oceans. We know for a fact that all these natural
phenomena, even those that appear to be the most durable, even the
solar system itself will one day decline and become extinct.

This process of constant change of all things - personal
and impersonal, internal and external, goes on constantly even without
our noticing it, and it affects us intimately in our daily life. Our
relations with other individuals are subject to the characteristic
of impermanence and change. Friends become enemies, enemies become
friends. Enemies even become relatives. Relatives become enemies.
If we look closely at our life, we can see how all our relationships
with other people are marked by impermanence. Our possessions are
also impermanent. Those things that we dearly love - our homes, our
automobiles, our clothes, all these are impermanent. All of them will
decay and eventually be destroyed. So in every aspect of our life,
whether it be personal or material, or whether with regard to our
relationships with others, or whether it be our possessions, impermanence
is a fact, verified by direct immediate observation.

Understanding impermanence is important not simply
for our practise of the Dharma but also in our daily life. How often
do friendships deteriorate and end because one of the persons involved
has failed to take account of the fact that his friends attitudes,
interests and so forth have changed? How often do marriages fail because
one, or both, of the parties fails to take account of the fact that
his or her partner has changed? It is because we lock ourselves into
fixed, artificial unchanging ideas of the character and personality
of our friends and relatives that we fail to develop our relationships
with them positively and because of this failure we often fail to
understand one another. Similarly, in ones career or public
life, one cannot hope to succeed if one does not keep abreast of changing
situations like, for instance, new trends in ones profession
or discipline. So whether it is in regard to our personal life or
in regard to our public life, understanding impermanence is necessary
if we are to be effective and creative in the way that we handle our
personal or professional affairs.

While understanding impermanence yields these immediate
benefits, here and now, it is particularly effective as an aid to
our practice of the Dharma. The understanding of impermanence is an
antidote to desire and ill-will. It is also an encouragement to our
practice of the Dharma. And finally, it is a key to understanding
the ultimate nature of things, the way things really are.

Remembering death especially is said to be like a
friend and a teacher to one who wishes to practise the Dharma. Remembering
death acts as a discouragement to excessive desire and ill-will. How
many quarrels, petty disagreements, life-long ambitions and enmities
fade into insignificance before the recognition of the inevitability
of death? Throughout the centuries, Buddhist teachers have encouraged
sincere practitioners of the Dharma to remember death, to remember
the impermanence of this personality. Some years ago, I had a friend
who went to India to study meditation. He approached a very renowned
and learned Buddhist teacher and asked him for some meditation instructions.
The teacher was reluctant to teach him because he was not convinced
of his sincerity. My friend persisted and asked him again and again.
Finally, the teacher said to him, "You will die, meditate upon
that." Meditation on death is extremely beneficial. We all need
to remember the certainty of our death. From the moment of our birth,
we move inexorably towards death. Remembering this, and remembering
that at the time of death, wealth, family and fame will be of no use
to us, we must turn our mind to the practice of the Dharma. We know
that death is absolutely certain. There has never been a single living
being who has escaped death.

Yet, while death itself is certain, the time of death
is uncertain. We can die at any moment. It is said that life is like
a candle in the wind, or a bubble of water. At any moment it may be
snuffed out. At any moment it may burst. Understanding that the time
of death is uncertain, and that we have now the conditions and opportunity
to practise the Dharma, we ought to practise it quickly so that we
may not waste this opportunity and this precious human life.

Finally, understanding impermanence is an aid to
the understanding of the ultimate nature of things. Seeing that all
things are perishable, and change every moment, we also begin to see
that things have no substantial existence of their own. That in our
persons and in the things around us, there is nothing like a self.
So in this sense, impermanence is directly related to the third of
the three characteristics, the characteristic of not-self. Understanding
impermanence is a key to understanding not-self. We will talk more
about this later. For the moment, let us now go on to the second of
the three characteristics, the characteristic of suffering.

The Buddha has said that whatever is impermanent
is suffering, and whatever is impermanent and suffering is also not-self.
Whatever is impermanent is suffering because impermanence is an occasion
for suffering. It is an occasion for suffering and not a cause of
suffering because impermanence is only an occasion for suffering so
long as ignorance, craving and clinging are present. How is that so?
In our ignorance of the real nature of things, we crave and cling
to objects in the forlorn hope that they may be permanent, that they
may yield permanent happiness. Failing to understand that youth, health
and life itself are impermanent, we crave for them, we cling to them.
We long to hold on to our youth and to prolonging our life and yet
because they are impermanent by nature, they slip through our fingers
like sand. When this occurs, impermanence is an occasion for suffering.
Similarly, we fail to recognize the impermanent nature of possessions,
power and prestige. We crave and cling to them. Once they end, impermanence
is an occasion for suffering. The impermanence of all situations in
samsara is a particular occasion for suffering when it occurs in the
so-called fortunate realm. It is said that the suffering of the gods
is even greater than the suffering of living beings dwelling in the
lower realms of existence when they see that they are about to fall
from the heavens into lower realms of existence. Even the gods trembled
when the Buddha reminded them of impermanence. So because even those
pleasant experiences whichwe crave and cling to are impermanent,
so impermanence is an occasion for suffering and whatever is impermanent
is also suffering.

Now we come to the third universal characteristic
of existence, the characteristic of not-self, or impersonality, or
insubstantiality. This is in a sense one of the really distinctive
features of Buddhist thought and of the teachings of the Buddha. During
the later development of religion and philosophy in India, some Hindu
schools became increasingly similar to the teachings of the Buddha,
in their techniques of meditation and in some of their philosophical
ideas. So it became necessary for Buddhist masters to point out that
there was still one distinctive feature that set Buddhism apart from
the Hindu schools that so closely resembled it. That distinctive feature
is the teaching of not-self.

Sometimes, this teaching of not-self is an occasion
for confusion because often we wonder how one can deny the self. After
all, we do say "I am speaking" or "I am walking,"
or "I am called so and so", or "I am the father or
the son of such and such a person." So how can we deny the reality
of that "I"? In order to clarify this, I think it is important
to remember that the Buddhist rejection of the "I" is not
a rejection of this convenient designation, the name "I".
Rather, it is a rejection of the idea that this name "I"
stands for a substantial, permanent and changeless reality. When the
Buddha said that the five factors of personal experience were not
the self, and that the self was not to be found within them He meant
that on analysis, this name "I" did not correspond to any
essence or entity.

The Buddha has used the example of the chariot and
the forest to explain the relation between the term I
and the components of personal experience. The Buddha has explained
that the term "chariot" is simply a convenient name for
a collection of parts that is assembled in a particular way. The wheels
are not the chariot. Neither is the axle, and neither is the carriage,
and so forth. Similarly, an individual tree is not a forest. Neither
is a number of individual trees a forest. There is no forest apart
from the individual trees. The term forest is just a convenient name
for an assembly of individual trees. This is the thrust of the Buddhas
rejection of the self. The Buddhas rejection is a rejection
of the belief in a real, independent, permanent entity that is represented
by the term "I". Such a permanent entity would have to be
independent, would have to be sovereign in the way that a king is
master of those around him. It would have to be permanent, immutable
and impervious to change, and such a permanent entity, such a self
is nowhere to be found.

The Buddha has applied the following analysis to
the body and mind to indicate that the self is nowhere to be found
either in the body or the mind. The body is not the self. For if the
body were the self, the self would be impermanent, would be subject
to change, decay, destruction, and death. So the body cannot be the
self. The self does not possess the body, in the sense that I possess
a car or a television, because the self cannot control the body. The
body falls ill, gets tired and old against our wishes. The body has
a shape which often does not agree with our wishes. So in no way does
the self possess the body. The self is not in the body. If we search
our body from the top of our head to the tip of our toes, we can nowhere
locate the self. The self is not in the bone, nor in the blood, nor
in the marrow, nor in the hair, nor in the spittle. The self is nowhere
to be found within the body. Similarly, the mind is not the self.
The mind is subject to constant change. The mind is forever jumping
about like a monkey. The mind is happy at one moment and unhappy at
the next. So the mind cannot be the self for the mind is constantly
changing. The self does not possess the mind because the mind becomes
excited or depressed against our wishes. Although we know that certain
thoughts are wholesome, and certain thoughts are unwholesome, the
mind pursues unwholesome thoughts and is indifferent towards wholesome
thoughts. So the self does not possess the mind because the mind acts
independently of the self. The self is not in the mind. No matter
how carefully we search the contents of our mind, no matter how carefully
we search our thoughts, feelings, and ideas, we can nowhere find the
self.

There is a very simple exercise that anyone of us
can perform. We can all sit quietly for a brief period of time and
look within our body and mind, and without exception we will find
that we cannot locate the self anywhere within the body nor the mind.
The conclusion remains that the self is just a convenient name for
a collection of factors. There is no self, no soul, no essence, no
core of personal experience apart from the ever-changing, interdependent,
impermanent physical and mental factors of personal experience such
as our feelings, ideas, thoughts, habits, and attitudes.

Why should we care to reject the idea of self? How
can we benefit by rejecting the idea of self? Here too, we can benefit
in two important ways. First of all, in our everyday life, on a mundane
level we can benefit in that we will become more creative, more comfortable,
and more open people. So long as we cling to the self, we will always
have to defend ourselves, to defend our possessions, property, prestige,
opinions and even our words. But once we give up this belief in an
independent and permanent self, we will be able to relate to other
people and situations without paranoia. We will be able to relate
freely, spontaneously and creatively. Understanding not-self is therefore
an aid to living.

Even more importantly, understanding not-self is
a key to enlightenment. The belief in a self is synonymous with ignorance,
and ignorance is the most basic of the three defilements. Once we
identify, imagine, or conceive of ourselves as an entity, we immediately
create a schism, a separation between ourselves and the people and
things around us. Once we have this conception of self, we respond
to the persons and things around us either with desire or with aversion.
In this sense, the self is the real villain of the piece. Seeing that
the self is the source and the cause of all suffering, and seeing
that the rejection of the self is the cause of the end of suffering,
rather than trying to defend, protect and preserve the self, why should
we not do our best to reject and eliminate this idea of the self?
Why should we not recognize that personal experience is like a banana
tree or like an onion, that when we take it apart piece by piece,
that when we examine it critically and analytically, we find that
it is empty of any essential, substantial core, that it is devoid
of the self?

When we understand that all things are impermanent,
are full of suffering, and are not-self, and when our understanding
of these truths is not merely intellectual or academic but through
study, consideration and meditation, the facts of impermanence, suffering
and not-self become part of our immediate experience. Through the
understanding of impermanence, suffering, and not-self, we will have
freed ourselves of the fundamental errors that imprison us within
the cycle of birth and death - the error of seeing things as permanent,
the error of seeing things as pleasant and the error of seeing things
as self. When these delusions are removed, wisdom arises. Just as
when darkness is removed, light arises. And when wisdom arises, one
experiences the peace and freedom of Nirvana.

This week we have confined ourselves to looking at
personal experience in terms of body and mind. Next week we will look
more deeply into the Buddhist analysis of personal experience in terms
of the elements of our physical and mental universe.